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Thursday, April 19, 2012

A Three Pack A Day

Celebrating the time when comics came in packs of three and you never knew what that third comic was going to be (unless you learned to be tricky)! These are three comics that actually came in the old plastic bag three packs.

With these three comics, Marvel forever changed my young mind with what a comic is. These were just standard, run of the mill issues but compared the the mild fare coming out of DC, these covers exploded with bright colors, dire-straights for the heroes and a sense of action that I never recalled seeing before. Of course, it could've just been my impressionable young mind...

Amazing Spider-man 147: Two arachnid supers going at it in the streets of NYC with a dead cop (yes, he is dead, look at the blood), Spidey inches away of the same fate as the entire city looks on. Man! I've had Spider-man comics before this one but with Ross Andru's dynamic fight scenes and drama of the escape of the Tarantula is just plain thrilling. This is also the return of the dead Gwen Stacey (cloned that is) and the Jackal pulling the scenes. With the cliffhanging ending of Spider-man being tossed off the Brooklyn Bridge in chains it would take me twenty years to finally find out what happened.

Iron Man 77: Again with the awesome cover, Iron Man getting blasted, his protective armor beginning to shred - they don't make comic covers like this anymore! The story is forgettable with the end of some super-villain war but that cover more than made up for it.

Captain America 188: The last time I saw Cap he was quitting but now it seems he was back but getting his ass kicked. Not only is this cover dynamic in a way you just don't see anymore, but Cap is fighting an unbeatable villain. You can see my recap of the issue here. But Cap's awesomeness as he finally pounds the Druid's henchmen and then finally the Druid himself cemented Captain America as one of the greatest comic book heroes.

After this three-pack, I became a strict convert over to Marvel. Sure, I'd pick up some DCs from time to time but they would never compare.

I have an old Detective Comic and Action Comic Whitman reprint from one of those 3-packs. I think the third book was a Justice League issue. The Detective Comic features the Phantom Stranger, I believe, with cover art by Mike Mignola. I've been reading the new run of Cap. and love how the Falcon and Hawkeye are included as Cap allies, makes me want to find issues of Capt. America from the 80s.